PokemonGO and Star Trek TNG’s ‘The Game’

When I walk around San Francisco, or really anywhere in the Bay Area, many places are just swarming with people playing Pokemon.

Growing up my favorite show was Star Trek the Next Generation, and there was one particular episode called The Game where an alien race took over the Enterprise by getting everyone to play an addictive game.

It projected these plant looking things into the field of vision (augmented reality, in other words) and then these balls would float and then get sucked into the plants.

And each time one would go into the opening, the wearer would get this pulse of pleasure—like a mini-orgasm. And then they’d immediately try to get the next one.

Well, seeing all these people mob around like crazy people, flicking their fingers on their phones while concentrating and then smiling, reminds me so much of the episode.

So I made the header image in the episode’s honor.

And hopefully:

There isn’t an actual alien race trying to take us over through this game, or…

Wil Wheaton will save us from them, like he did in that episode

Either way is fine.

By the way, I still don’t get how Data fell under the influence. To this day I totally call bullshit on that one.